Welcome Professionals…

…conducting a kick-off meeting at the beginning of a project is a given for most top management consulting teams. We are all familiar with the concept. Usually there is an internal team kick-off and one official kick-off together with the client.

Some kick-offs though, seem to lack the most essential fundamentals. While the team members are busy planning modules, work streams and milestones, defining KPIs, managing budgets and capacities and finally getting to know each other formally and informally, they sometimes loose sight of some basics.

I am talking about the project objectives and rules of engagement. For every project there has to be a clearly set goal. It helps to formulate it in form of a precise mission statement that everybody will buy into. It is a no-brainer, but there are actually teams who forget to align on the objective in the heat of the work.

The other very important fundamental is a set of rules of engagement. Project teams work apart from formal structures, hierarchies and processes. Usually they are put together on a one-off basis and work in this specific team constellation for the first time.

It is key to set up a few rules of engagement in the beginning to make the team work effective. They should cover the following topics:

• Roles and responsilbities for each team member, i.e., project lead
• Problem solving, decision making, and conflict resolution
• Interface to key stakeholders (clients, decision makers)
• Basic rules of courtesy/operating rules

As top management consultants we operate in a high stakes environment. If we skip this fundamental kick-off content, we will put the whole project at the risk of failure.

Now, I am kicking off the long weekend ahead!

Malte